YEARBOOK PROPHECY.

A long time ago, in a high school far, far away, some of my peers wrote in my yearbook, during the obligatory end-of-the-school-year yearly yearbook signing.

You know, those often cheesy, often shallow blurbs scrawled inside the front and back covers that usually ended (at least they did back in the day) with some sort of “K.I.T.” or “B.F.F.” meaning “Keep In Touch” and “Best Friends Forever” and sometimes included a phone number so you could maybe hang out over the summer.

They wrote things about me that were just as true then as they are still today. The only difference is, it has taken a lot of years and a lot of growth to accept and embrace my gifts.

I was told, I think aptly so, that I was a good writer and that I was funny. I’ll let you be the judge about the latter, or both for that matter, but I do believe both of those to be true because I still get third-party confirmation of both even to this day.

The thing about the adolescent years is, many of us are so terrified to be different that we just want to fit in and not be made fun of thus we repress the things that make us unique and different. Or we purposely don’t excel in grades so that people won’t call us a “nerd” or a “geek.” We repress the things that ultimately really will draw people to us, not make people run away from us screaming in terror like we think might happen.

Ever heard the old saying, “there’s nothing new under the sun”? It’s true – to a certain degree. There is a lot of recycled junk that goes around because people don’t tap into their creativity to do anything different. The thing that IS new, is you. You are the only you that has ever existed or ever will exist again and you owe it to our humanity to find what makes you unique and then DO THAT THING over and over and over.

People are so sick and tired of being fed the same repackaged crap over and over and they are sick of stupid (false) reality TV crap that they are STARVING for what you have to offer in the uniquely individual package that God has put together.

“Reality” television only exists because we have come so far from embracing our OWN real reality and living our own lives that we are willing to suck down this type of garbage to avoid having to live our own lives. The more time we spend in this routine the more time we are taking away from ourselves and the process of becoming who we are supposed to be.

You know, I don’t even remember what I would have written back in high school. Much less, know which of my classmates would have even read what I don’t even remember that I wrote??? But for whatever reason, and however it came about, they did read something, and it resonated with them even then at our ripe young age of 15.

I remember being a bit of a class clown. There’s one in every class I suppose. I guess to a great degree it was me. Not in a disruptive or disrespectful way though… I don’t think.

Stop what you’re doing, and go dust off your high school yearbooks and truly allow yourself to see what others saw. And be honest with yourself.

If it brings up something that you had forgotten about yourself, or never knew or never embraced or never realized that that was what made you tick or it reminds you of your true passion, then you need to do what it takes to make it a reality.

It will be a long road.

It will not be easy.

But the things that are most worthwhile, usually aren’t.

This is too important to blow off and I’m on your side.

Even when your parents and friends tell you you’re crazy.

You only get one chance at this life.

At the end of the day, the only person you have to please is yourself.